Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Three and a half hours have been allocated for Report and Final Stages of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009. There are 127 amendments to be dealt with, one of which, amendment No. 120, is ten pages long.

This matter was raised by the Chairman of the Select Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Seán Fleming, with the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, which I understand made a decision on it last night. The complaint made by Deputy Fleming on behalf of the select committee was that the Bill, as presented for Committee Stage, originally comprised 40 sections laid out over 40 pages and included an explanatory memorandum. However, 128 Committee Stage amendments laid out over 100 pages were presented for consideration and no revised explanatory memorandum was provided to Members.

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